{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T06:11:29Z","timestamp":1779343889485,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":39,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1779321600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Background<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Air medical and critical care transport teams often treat severely injured or critically ill patients when imaging, laboratory testing, and specialist support are limited. Point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) may support early recognition of reversible conditions, but its value depends on strict indication selection, operator competence, and interpretation rules that prevent false reassurance.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>This structured narrative review summarizes evidence and practical considerations for transport POCUS in trauma and critical care retrieval. The review is organized around a safety-gated framework and groups evidence by clinical use: extended FAST (eFAST) and lung ultrasound, shock assessment, cardiac arrest POCUS, ultrasound-guided procedures, workflow integration, governance, tele-mentoring, and research priorities.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Main findings<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Transport POCUS is most useful when it confirms a limited set of urgent, actionable findings. eFAST and thoracic ultrasound generally show high specificity but only moderate sensitivity; therefore, a clear positive finding may trigger action, whereas a negative or technically limited scan should not justify down-triage. Representative studies suggest that prehospital POCUS can influence care processes: one randomized multicenter trial reported that prehospital FAST reduced the median time to admission by 13\u202fmin and the median time to operative treatment by 15\u202fmin, while a prospective HEMS cohort found that POCUS was used in 34.5% of patients and had therapeutic consequences in 40.7%. However, evidence for mortality, complication reduction, and long-term patient-centered outcomes remains limited.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Transport POCUS should function as a focused decision-support tool, not as a substitute for definitive imaging. Safe implementation requires clear scope, time caps, \u201cindeterminate = not reassuring\u201d rules, structured documentation, competency-based training, discrepancy review, and quality assurance. Future studies should move beyond feasibility and time-to-care endpoints to evaluate safety, false-negative harms, complications, and patient-centered outcomes.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1816318","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]],"date-time":"2026-05-21T05:45:45Z","timestamp":1779342345000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Point-of-care ultrasound during trauma and critical care transport: a practical, safety-gated review"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Lihui","family":"Chen","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jiajia","family":"Li","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Xiuxiu","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jie","family":"Huang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Jialu","family":"Liang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Chenying","family":"Qu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yaling","family":"Jin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yangtian","family":"Ye","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Clinical Medicine, Hangzhou Medical College","place":["Hangzhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Mengqi","family":"Cai","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Weiting","family":"Chen","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Emergency Medicine and Intensive Care Medicine, The First People's Hospital of Linhai","place":["Taizhou, Zhejiang, China"]}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,21]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"256","DOI":"10.1097\/01.CCM.0000104917.39204.0A","article-title":"Guidelines for the inter- and intrahospital transport of critically ill patients","volume":"32","author":"Warren","year":"2004","journal-title":"Crit Care Med"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"281","DOI":"10.1136\/emj.2003.005975","article-title":"Secondary transport of the critically ill and injured adult","volume":"21","author":"Gray","year":"2004","journal-title":"Emerg 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